I like being a woman

Wow - the things you learn every day.

Qamile is one of just a handful of "sworn virgins" still alive in Albania: women, typically fom poor rural communities in the north of the country, who opted to change their status, though not their sex.

According to the sociologist, Zydi Dervishi, who has interviewed more than 20 such women, some took such a life-changing decision in order to avoid an unwanted marriage; others, to make up for the absence of a male heir in the family.

He says that in Albania's historically patriarchal society, a family without a son or a father figure was often considered leaderless.

Sworn virgins? Really? I didn't even know there was such a thing. I mean... yes.. people may stay celibate voluntarily... But to take on the persona of the opposite sex?

You really should read the full article. I found it very ediucational.

I cannot even begin to fathom the sacrifices these women have made. To be born female, but to bury your feminine instincts and immerse oneself into a male psyche. To walk like a man, talk like a man, be treated like a man.

But not all the time. And yet, you can never display your female side.

Sounds like a sepcial kind of hell to me :o

I am grateful to be a woman in a modern-ish country, with non-traditional parents who aren't haressing me to get married and have kids, with other female relatives who are encouraging me to do the things that make me happy (without the need of a man), and ... oh my... a whole gamut of good things. GOOD things. And it's sad, but it's so easy to assume the same good thngs happen in other parts of the world.


I'd better be grateful, and grateful Big Time!